BSPP News Summer 2002 - Online Edition

The Newsletter of the British Society for
Plant PathologyNumber 42, Summer 2002

Obituary : L P Smith

L P Smith, known to his friends and colleagues as 'LP', died on 10 October
2001 aged 86 in Ilkley, Yorkshire where he had spent his retirement near
the Dales, which he always remembered with affection from his youth. He
was for many years Head of the Agricultural Branch of the Meteorological
Office. Plant pathologists will remember him best for the 'Smith
Period', a forecasting scheme for potato late blight.

He was a pupil at Leeds Grammar School, where he won a scholarship
to Queens College, Oxford. He read mathematics and physics and graduated
with a BA in Mathematics in 1937. He joined the Meteorological Office
and he remained on its staff until his retirement 40 years later.
After appointments to Kew Observatory, Croydon and RAF stations at home
and in the Middle East during the Second World War, he returned to the
Met Office to establish a new branch responsible for all aspects of agricultural
meteorology. This proved to be an inspired appointment, for he had
a flair for establishing friendly and fruitful contacts both with farmers
and with agricultural scientists. In due course the success of his
work led to a special merit promotion and to the award of a Nuffield travelling
fellowship, which enabled him to make extensive visits throughout the Commonwealth
and Europe.

In 1961, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) asked LP to prepare
a report on agricultural meteorology to be used as part of its contribution
to the World Hunger Campaign and this was published as a contribution to
FAO's basic study series. In the following year, his rapidly growing international
reputation led to his appointment as a member of WMO's Commission for Agricultural
Meteorology, of which he was President twice. His Methods in Agricultural
Meteorology, published in 1975, distilling much of his own experience,
provided a contemporary review of an expanding field of research. Each
chapter is prefaced by quotations from leading writers but a quote of his
from the preface maybe appropriate: 'The first duty of a scientist is not
to worship knowledge, but to question it'. He also produced a series
of 10 Technical Notes for WMO and his booklet on Weather and food was the
first in FAO's Basic Studies Series. In 1965 he was awarded the Groves
Memorial Prize for meteorology. In the 1960s and 1970s LP was increasingly
involved with international aspects of his field and WMO awarded him a
certificate honouring 20 years of dedicated service.

Much of his time was spent attending and chairing meetings and he continued
to accept many requests to lecture at home and abroad as well as to write.
None of this prevented a keen and enthusiastic response to any current
problems brought to his attention and discussion of problems from the field
were always rewarding. His analysis of a problem was incisive and penetrating
and backed by a huge and wide experience.

Shortly after he joined the Meteorological Office, LP inaugurated a
series of Agricultural Memoranda and he and his colleagues subsequently
produced over 200 of these documents, primarily for the benefit of staff
in the advisory services such as ADAS.

His 'Smith Period' was the result of reworking the 1950-1955 operations
charts of A Beaumont (of the 'Beaumont Period', the classic UK potato late
blight forecasting scheme published in 1947) to test the validity of using
a shorter period of higher humidity. He found that 29 out of the
43 failures of Beaumont would have been valid using a 90% humidity criterion
for 11 h in each of two days instead of the 75% for 48 h. Smith records
that "The differences in effectiveness of the two systems, however, would
appear to be small in practice and there would be little point in altering
an established system unless the benefits are likely to be considerable".
It was not until 1975 that the Smith period came into full operation and
formed the basis of blight forecasting in the UK. It is still the
most widely used forecasting scheme in the UK and has proved to be very
robust. Topically, LP published a paper in Nature on an analysis
of the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 1967, concluding that weather
played a greater part in the spread of the disease than was previously
recognised. One of his final contributions was a book written in
collaboration with Harold Croxall, a former ADAS plant pathologist, on
The Fight for Food, published in 1984. In it, the authors identify
the wide range of factors influencing, and often limiting, agricultural
production; a forerunner of our current concerns in defining global food
security.

It should also be recorded that LP was a fine rugby football referee
and was a senior member of the London Society of Rugby Referees for many
years.

This obituary has been modified from one prepared by John Monteith for
publication in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
and with additional material from John Jenkins, to reflect more his contribution
to plant pathology.

WANTED! A New Editor for the Newsletter

The Newsletter is produced three times a year and distributed to all members
of BSPP. As responses to the recent questionnaire indicated, it is the
main means of communication between BSPP and members of the Society.

The Editor of the Newsletter is responsible for producing three issues
of the Newsletter a year and is invited to attend four Board meetings a
year. The Editor has a comparatively free hand in the content, format and
design of the Newsletter and is not constrained in any way by previous
practice. The Editor will be supported by an Editorial Assistant, paid
by the Board of BSPP.

The current Editor, James Brown, retires from this post at the end of
2002 and a new Editor is required. The first issue to be produced by the
new editor will be distributed in February 2003, so a new Editor is ideally
needed in time for a hand-over in October or November 2002.

This is a very interesting post, which brings the Editor into contact
with many members of the Society. Anyone interested is welcome to contact
the Secretary of BSPP, Dr Avice Hall. Further information will be gladly
provided by the current editor.